An Initial Look at Technology and Institutions on Defense Industry Consolidation

Conventional wisdom holds that defense industry consolidation resulted from decreased defense spending. However, we maintain that understanding dynamic changes in key defense institutions helps provide a more complete explanation for observed consolidation. Specifically, we examine the interaction of evolving technology and changing institutions. Institutions reviewed include procurement policies, weapons requirements process and the procurement organizations. We take an initial look at the industry and highlight how these changes influenced transaction costs in the defense industry more fully explain the forces driving consolidation and provide greater insight to policy makers seeking to improve the performance of the defense industry. Further research is needed to build a robust institutional framework of the defense industry and the related government agencies to allow better policy prescriptions

Investigating the Integration of Acquired Firms in High-technology Industries: Implications for Industrial Policy

Acquisition activity persists despite evidence that acquisitions do not improve firm performance. Further, government policy toward the defense industry has advocated consolidation in the name of nominal cost savings. We explore the role acquisitions play toward technology transfer and begin to identify factors associated with acquisition success through a review of existing research on post-acquisition performance that primarily considers acquiring firm stock performance. Using this research as a foundation, we build a model to analyze post-acquisition performance using a sample of high-technology firms. Results suggest critical success factors associated with post-acquistion stock performance are poorly understood. We conclude that proactive government policy toward high-technology industry mergers and acquisitions may be misguided due to difficulty in predicting acquisition outcome